BBC. Adelaide Entertainment Centre. 24 Jan 2015
The very fabric of space and time is torn asunder at the Entertainment Centre when Murray Gold’s stirring music from the inter-galactically popular BBC TV series Dr Who is unleashed by the mighty Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Under the expert baton of maestro Ben Foster, employed with the precision and devastating impact of a sonic screwdriver, Gold’s music summons forth the dreaded Daleks, Cybermen, Silents, Oods, Judoons, Mummies and Silurians! With so much evil beckoned to the same space-time coordinates, the potential for universal chaos is palpable, but Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor, exploited his gentle wit to defuse a situation that might have seen the extermination, eradication and annihilation of an extremely large and enthusiastic audience of die-hard Whovians.
So what makes good film music? Notable American composer Aaron Copeland maintained there are five aspects to film scores, and they hold equally true for TV scores. Apart from simply ‘being there’ as an underscore, the music must set time and place, warn that something significant is imminent, make more obvious something that might not be noticed, and underline the connections between events and characters. Murray Gold clearly understands this, and although his compositions for Dr Who are necessarily episodic comprising sporadic melodies and ever-changing rhythms and meters to fit with the ‘three minute’ grabs that contemporary pop-culture seemingly demands, the music has an expanse and earnestness that fits the weightiness of the adventures of the Doctor.
The program features thirteen compositions that come from previous seasons and which hint at what is to come in Peter Capadi’s second season as the Timelord. The second half brings out the big numbers, and some of them feature the glorious soprano voice of Opera Australia’s Antoinette Halloran (especially in ‘Abigail’s Song’, a high point of the concert) and the choral delights of Adelaide’s Gradate Singers and The Elder Conservatorium Choral. Other highlights included ‘The Pandorica Suite’ and ‘Death in Heaven Suite’.
This is the first time the Dr Who Symphonic Spectacular has come to Adelaide, but not the first time to Australia. If the show is to continue to have a future, then producers need to refresh the show’s concept, otherwise it runs the very real risk of becoming boring and not attracting Whovians for return visits.
Kym Clayton
When: Closed
Where: Entertainment Centre
Bookings: Closed
